{"id":74965,"date":"2025-08-17T12:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T12:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/74965\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T12:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T12:02:08","slug":"thats-the-pair-cadillac-driver-line-up-for-f1-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/74965\/","title":{"rendered":"‘That\u2019s the pair’ Cadillac driver line-up for F1 2026 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ahead of what PlanetF1.com understands will be confirmation that Sergio Perez will race for Cadillac next year, Juan Pablo Montoya says the American team\u2019s drivers should only be given \u201cone year\u201d deal.<\/p>\n

Cadillac will join the F1 2026 grid next season, the American team confirmed as the sport\u2019s 11th outfit.<\/p>\n

Cadillac has not confirmed either F1 2026 driver<\/p>\n

But while that opens the door for two new drivers to race in the sport, it looks as if it could be two new old drivers with Cadillac linked to several former F1 drivers who are seeking a comeback.<\/p>\n

Multiple sources have told PlanetF1.com that former Red Bull driver Perez has reached an agreement with Cadillac that will see him return to the grid next season, with an announcement expected in the weekend of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.<\/p>\n

Confirmation of his return would spell an end to a year on the sidelines, with the Mexican released from his Red Bull contract at the conclusion of the F1 2024 season; the timing of this being too late for Perez to find a seat elsewhere on the grid.4<\/p>\n

His team-mate, though, is still in the air.<\/p>\n

While Mercedes race winner Valtteri Bottas has been linked to the seat, so to have former drivers Zhou Guanya, Mick Schumacher and Jack Doohan. Newcomers Felipe Drugovich and McLaren\u2019s Alex Dunne<\/a> have also been mentioned in the conversation.<\/p>\n

More on the Formula 1 teams headquarters and engines<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 F1 team principals: How long has each team boss been in charge?<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 F1 team HQs: Where each team is based and plan major upgrades<\/a><\/p>\n

Former F1 driver Montoya reckons for its first season, Cadillac should go with two experienced F1 drivers, but after that, drop one to make room for a newcomer.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, for me, I think that\u2019s the pair,\u201d Montoya said of Perez and Bottas to AS Colombia, \u201cand the way I think they should do it is sign one for two years and the other for one year.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommit one for two or three years and then start looking for someone younger who can be more of a future for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause the two drivers they have would be very good, but they\u2019re drivers that in two or three years will already be thinking about stopping. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut for the beginning of the team, it would be the ideal pair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressed on whether Perez or Bottas should get the longer deal, the former McLaren driver said: \u201cOf the two, Checo. I think Checo would fit them a little better with the profile and everything, but Bottas is also very fast.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there you have to see exactly. Exactly. It depends on how motivated Valtteri is, because I think Valtteri is very fast and can be faster than Checo, but Valtteri is very emotional, it depends on the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read next: George Russell makes telling F1 career comparison to Michael Schumacher<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of what PlanetF1.com understands will be confirmation that Sergio Perez will race for Cadillac next year, Juan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,3550,817,813,816,818,44,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-74965","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cadillac","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-home-page","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}